10 C’s of an Effective

Business Letter
TECHNICAL COMMUNICATION
Prof. M. D. Conclara
 Objectives of Business Letters

• as tools of operation
• as assistance to employee development and personnel management
• as aid to record keeping of important matters
• as channels of information to make employees fully informed
 According to Bittner:

• a well-written, grammatically formatted letter says a lot about individuals

• a poorly written letter, indicates an uneducated sender
 2 General Characteristics of Business Letter

• External Characteristics include the general appearance ; its neatness,

spacing of parts, absence of erasures, quality of paper, proper indention,
and many more
• Internal Characteristics refers to the deeper perception.
 The 10 C’s of an Effective Business Letter

1. CLEARNESS – a business letter must have a clear and accurate message

2. COURTESY – avoid statements that are offensive to reader
3. CONSIDERATION – always consider the reader’s point of view and not the
writer’s point of view
4. CONCISENESS –omit unnecessary details and eliminate unnecessary
works
 The 10 C’s of an Effective Business Letter

5. CONCRETENESS – use specific, concrete words that create a picture in

your reader’s mind
6. CONSISTENCY – there must be unity of ideas and purpose
7. CHARACTER – there must be originality of expression
 The 10 C’s of an Effective Business Letter

8. COHERENCE – there must be continuity of though from the beginning to

an end of the letter
9. COMPLETENESS – letter must contain ideas that inform the reader to act
and aim towards a definite purpose
10. CORRECTNESS – letter must be free of errors such as spelling,
punctuation, grammar, and letter format